Jun 24, 2008 10:00 am US/Eastern
IAEA Chief: Iran Could Make Nuke In 6 Months
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CBS) ―
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Iran could create a nuclear weapon in six months.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei spoke on Al-Arabiya television on June 20, discussing Iran's nuclear program, and the potential for the Middle Eastern country to produce a nuclear weapon.
"If Iran wants to turn to the production of nuclear weapons, it must leave the NPT, expel the IAEA inspectors, and then it would need at least, considering the number of centrifuges and the quantity of uranium Iran has...It would need at least six months to one year," ElBaradei said.
"Therefore, Iran will not be able to reach the point where we would wake up one morning to an Iran with a nuclear weapon," he said.
His interviewer then asked "If Iran decides today to expel the IAEA from the country, it will need six months to produce [nuclear] weapons?"
The IAEA chief answered, "It would need this period to produce a weapon, and to obtain highly-enriched uranium in sufficient quantities for a single nuclear weapon."
The ElBaradei interview was conducted one day after reports emerged of a large-scale military
exercise by Israel.
U.S. officials said they thought the Israeli exercises were meant to warn Iran of Israel's abilities to hit its nuclear sites.
ElBaradei also warned that he will resign as chief of the UN nuclear agency if Iran is attacked by any country.
"I always think of resigning in the event of a military strike...If military force is used, I would conclude that there is no mechanism left for me to defend," he said.
"The
reports this week of Israeli military maneuvers, which took place in
early June, provoked the IAEA warning," said CBS News Foreign Affairs
Pamela Falk, who is based at the U.N., "because atomic energy chief
ElBaradei has been pleading with Iran to accept a new package of
incentives before another round of sanctions would be imposed."
"The
problem in the region is that, as time passes and the clock is ticking
on Iran's uranium enrichment program, there is a fear that Israel will
act, as it did in Syria last year, to attack at least one of Iran's
nuclear facilities," said Falk, who was in Saudi Arabia earlier this
week.
"Israel is evidently the most threatened by the last IAEA
report, which concluded that there are unanswered questions about
Iran's ability to eventually develop nuclear weapons," said Falk, "so
it is elBaradei himself who produced the report that is making Israel
nervous."
Meanwhile, Iran is reiterating its decision to
continue enriching uranium, calling Western pressure to suspend the
work "illogical."
The statement by a government spokesman came
as Europe waits for Iran's formal answer to an international package of
incentives designed to rein in its nuclear program.
Iran's
official IRNA news agency quoted Iranian spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham
on Saturday as saying that his country will respond to the package at a
convenient time.
The package would give Tehran economic
incentives, and the chance to develop alternate light-water reactors,
in return for dropping the uranium enrichment.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
